Real or Imagined

New role model: John Maeda

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:26:00 +0000

So I’ve tried for several months (arguably years) to figure out my career path and determine if my choices toward user experience and interaction design have been the right ones. Unfortunately, I’ve been labeled a ‘developer’ by people who work with me, which loosely translates into ‘you should code and only figure out ways to code better...nothing more, nothing less’. This is particularly disheartening because I’m a creative person atomically (ex. jazz musician, graphic designer, etc.) who understands the dry / boring logic that can make things work. I’ve designed many things in my life and I enjoy the creative process of concepting and prototyping. As such, I’ve always tried to be more of an interdisciplinarian that wants to smooth the boundaries between design and development. Most people believe that designers can’t code and developers can’t design, which I think is a bold faced lie....

Anyway, I took a chance with Amazon.com and decided to buy a book entitled The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda. I’m still reading the book (very impressed so far), but what struck me was the path(s) that Meada took throughout his career and how they make sense . He is currently the President of Rhode Island School of Design which is impressive by itself, but what is more impressive is his interdisciplinary background. Maeda completed his undergraduate and master degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering @ MIT, received a Ph.D. in design from the University of Tsukuba Institute of Art and Design in Japan, AND received an MBA from Arizona State University. On the back sleeve of The Laws of Simplicity, Maeda is described as a ‘graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist’ and its well deserved.

The irony of all this is that I found myself plotting a course for the same destination as Maeda before I started reading The Laws of Simplicity. I have two associate degrees (Math and Computer Science), an undergraduate degree in web technologies, and I’m currently in a MS program for Human Computer Interaction. I started scouting MBA programs about 2 weeks ago to gain mastery of the business side of design and development. I may have stumbled across an individual who is living proof that design and science can coexist successfully.
I intend to continue reading Maeda’s books + posts and hopefully I can pose questions to him someday to find out if I’m crazy or not. But for now, he is a role model for me and reminds me that there is a larger scale purpose that will soon be made clear in the future to all those who are constantly confused by the smaller thoughts in the present.

Follow John Maeda on Twitter: @johnmaeda
Visit John Maeda's Blog: http://our.risd.edu/

BlazBlue Calamity Trigger Icons

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:26:00 +0000

With the most recent update to CandyBar from Iconfactory, I was more than a little excited to import and export some new icons and since I'm a HUGE fan of a video game called BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, I thought I would try my hand at making some icons of the characters.....for FREE!!!

Click here to download (15.1 MB .zip, Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X)

The Language of Things

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 22:35:00 +0000

Quick Facts
Size: 208 pages (B&W photography)
5 Chapters:
    1) Language
    2) Design and its Archetypes
    3) Luxury
    4) Fashion
    5) Art
Where to buy: Amazon.com

Every now and again, I buy a book to try to understand the different forms of design and the mystique that draws me to it. My exploration led me to The Language of Things by Deyan Sudjic. To put it simply, it is one of the most comprehensible, intelligent, and clever books I’ve read in a long time. Here is why...

First, Sudjic has an non-American perspective which is refreshing and presents a style devoid of capitalistic or consumerist undertones. Sudjic’s statements are often quick and to the point and his citations from the works of prestigious designers and architects reinforce his perspectives. Sudjic analogizes consumerism to product pornography and device fetishism. Later, he cites John Berger’s Ways to Seeing to support his assessment. Berger states: “It is important...not to confuse publicity (of a product) with the pleasure or benefits to be enjoyed from the thing it advertises”. Sudjic identifies several attributes of design that seem to be overlooked or forgotten in modern products such as consistency (ex. black laptops paired with white power cords), redundancy, and a lack of durability. Sudjic states that “the allure of a product is created and sold on the basis of a look that doesn’t survive physical contact”. In addition, Sudjic states that the product cycle of each new version of a device is too quick to ever foster a meaningful and lasting owner/object relationship.

Second, Sudjic does a great job of transposing design into commonly available forms and communicates what design is not. According to Sudjic, a designer’s goal is to modify an existing archetype, such as a lamp or chair, which tells exactly what it does and what the user needs to make it work. In addition, Sudjic highlights playfulness as an archetype to encourage design as an engagement of all the users senses, not just the ‘look and feel’. Sudjic switches to define design within luxury as those products that represent stability, quality, scarcity, and communicate ‘coded social signals of privileges’. Sudjic identifies design in fashion by describing the processes, presentations (ex. shows, models, parties, etc.), and the use of uniforms to evoke an emotional response from viewers. I can say that Sudjic is absolutely correct because the websites of designers such as Nubbytwiglet.com, which I frequent often to stay inspired and interested in design and / or fashion, often are designed to evoke an emotional response via comments and praise in the artistry that appears there. When contrasting art and design, Sudjic believes that design is forever burdened with utility and problem solving, while art is driven by the intangible and can result in uselessness.

References to iconic designers and architects such as Earnest Elmo Colkins (Consumer Engineering), Philippe Starck, Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class, Josef Hoffman, and Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime appear frequently throughout the text.

Final thought: Go get the book! I finished this in one day because I was enamored with it’s brevity and precise thoughts. Sudjic’s thoughts are clear and once you’ve completed this book, perhaps your thinking of what design is and isn’t will be clear too..

An audio interview with Deyan Sudjic as he discusses The Language of Things is available through The Sound of Young America. Click here to listen or download it (12.4 MB .mp3 format)

iPhone Cool Projects Review

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:33:00 +0000

Quick Facts: 240 pages
Source Code: 184.98 Kb (.zip file)
Where to buy: Buy from Amazon.com or eBook from Apress Buy eBook

iPhone Cool Projects is a very broad and deep iPhone development composition. The book is broken into 7 chapters:
CHAPTER 1 - Designing a Simple, Frenzic-StylePuzzleGame
CHAPTER 2 - Mike Ash’s Deep Dive Into Peer-to-Peer Networking
CHAPTER 3 - Doing Several Things at Once: Performance Enhancements with Threading
CHAPTER 4 - All Fingers and Thumbs: Multitouch Interface Design andImplementation
CHAPTER 5 - Physics, Sprites, and Animation with the cocos2d-iPhone Framework
CHAPTER 6 - Serious Streaming Audio the Pandora Radio Way
CHAPTER 7 - Going the Routesy Way with Core Location, XML, and SQLite

For new iPhone developers, Apress provides the source code for each chapter’s project to help those of us that like to learn by seeing the code work, and only then decomposing it into various pieces for learning purposes.

Without going into gross detail, I mainly bought the book to gain some insight into threading, multitouch interface design, audio streaming. Chapter 3 (Threading) opens by describing the taxonomy of threading and several keywords such as thread, process, multitasking, synchronization, deadlock, etc. After the description, the chapter walks you through the steps AND color graphics of each of the XCode screens. There are LOTS of diagrams to explain the setup and the arrangement of threads in the example project as well. In the past, when books have very intense globs of code, there is something lost when attempting to explain each line. iPhone Cool Projects actually does a decent job of walking through the connections to UIControl objects and completing tasks such as an event processing loop or implementing a critical section. Chapter 4 (Multitouch Interface Design and Implementation) explores many concepts and breaks mutilt-touch gesturing into 2 tasks:
- Arrange for touch messages to get routed to your code (Event handling: touchesBegan, touchesMoved, touchesEnded, touchCancelled)
- Understand the information passed to you (gesture recognition: tap, double-tap, finger scroll, swipe, pink/unpinch, two-finger scroll)
- Track and parse gestures from that information 

Many of these sorts of topics are available via the Apple Developer Connection, but it helps to have additional context and perspectives on how to implement these types of methodologies for multiple situations and architectures.

If you are a skeptic and want to see more before committing to purchasing this book, Apress has generously provided a sample chapter (Chapter 5) to entice you to buy.

Try it out!

Why so few humanitarian iPhone apps?

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:23:00 +0000

It may not be obvious, but I’m an iPhone designer and developer. Although I got started late last year, you could say that I’ve been pretty successful at it, for the most part.

Recently I decided to do something I considered to be an act of selfless design: concept and build an iPhone application for a non-profit group that may benefit from exposure through 40,000,000+ iPhones and iPod touches. In June 2009, Apple stated there were 50,000+ iphone applications, so I figured “why not build one or more that might benefit humanity?”.

After contacting several groups, I found that several did not think that it was worth the time or effort to build an iPhone app for their cause...even if it was done free of charge!! Primary reason: “We don’t think an app might help us”.

Is awareness not enough? Can socializing ideals that a group promotes hurt them in some way? If so, why do so many have websites? Is it because there is a lack of understanding of how Apple's or Google's success could benefit non-profit organizations? Could it be because there is no incentive for designers or developers to volunteer to build humanitarian apps when the contract market rate is between $100-$200 an hour? Is it because no one believes that consumers are willing to be a part of a philanthropic effort when accounting for the cost of ownership of an iPhone or Google Android device?

Or is it something else altogether??

Please comment and let me know your thoughts on why there are so few humanitarian apps. Comment if you managed to find a humanitarian app in the iTunes App store or in the Google marketplace. If you even have a cause that you think is worthy of an iPhone app, let us know. Maybe the iPhone development community can get something built for them...

What can we / you do about it?

Now You See It Book Review + Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:45:00 +0000

If you want to skip to the book giveaway, click here

Quick Facts
Book Name: Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis
Type: Hardcover
Size: 329 pages
Where to buy: Amazon.com
Organization: 14 chapters split into 3 primary groups. Building Core Skills for Visual Analysis (6 Chapters), Honing Skills for Diverse Types of Visual Analysis (6 Chapters), and Further Thoughts and Hopes (2 Chapters)

About a month ago, I got a hold of a copy of Stephen Few’s newest composition. I’ve been a fan of Stephen Few for a while, specifically when I read his book Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data and I was pretty excited about this book too. I may be somewhat biased in my assessment, however, I think I can provide a somewhat objective review as I, and countless others, haven’t quite reached the level of information design mastery.

Stephen Few compresses visualization and data principles into a single source that would normally be scattered over several hundred (maybe not that many, but enough to discourage). The book is transcends the role of a reference guide and is more of a guide on the ‘journey of discovery’. Stephen makes a note early on that the amount of information in the world is not the issue, but more of the lack of skill in making good use of it. Ironically, this is the premise for all of the new bing.com commercials where people suffer from information overload when asked a question that has a very singular and fixed answer)

Stephen outlines the traits of good data analysis, information visualization, and even goes as far as to outline the aptitude and attitude of an effective data analyst. In addition, he outlines the traits of meaningful data, which include high volume, multivariate, atomic, and of known pedigree. Stephen even goes as far as to outline the components of analytical interaction and navigation, which was a new learning point for me. In addition, Stephen covers a LOT of ground including pre-attentive attributes, working memory, and Ben Shneiderman visual information-seeking mantra.

In all, this book is outstanding and should serve as a good standalone for those interested or aspiring for good information visualization or as a supplemental addition to an existing collection of Edward Tufte and Colin Ware books.

I like this book so much, I want to hand a copy to someone who will use the power for good. All you have to do is:

1. Write a tweet about this giveaway and include a link to this post

2. Leave a comment with a link to your tweet

That’s it! Contest will end on Friday, July 3rd at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Good luck!

Update: Congratulations to @bump! Stay tuned for prizes and discussions coming up soon...

Balsamiq Mockups Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Sometimes there is a need for really good software tools to help visualize a concept. Balsamiq Mockups is easily one of the best wire framing and conceptual drawing tools available. Equipped with a vast UI Library that includes controls for websites, iPhone screens, and software user interfaces, it’s a must have for those who want to plan and design with maximum benefit and minimum cost.

Now, for the good news....
Balsamiq has allowed me to give away a copy of Mockups to one lucky individual. All you have to do get in on the action is:

1) Follow me on Twitter (@compoundj)
2) Leave a comment below with your Twitter username
3) Tell me how your life can be easier with Mockups

The winner will be announced @ 11:59 p.m. EST on May 22nd, 2009. Feel free to retweet and download the trial version of Mockups so you can get some practice in. You may be surprised what you are able to do with it. Good Luck!

Update: Congratulations to @sheatsb! Thanks to everyone that participated in this giveaway. Stay tuned for prizes and discussions coming up soon...

Video Games - Entertainment or Creative Immersion

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:05:00 +0000

I’m not sure if you are a video game player, but even if you aren’t, there are some pretty exciting things happening with the market, namely the devices that run video games as well as the method of interaction with games. Everyone has heard of the Nintendo Wii and their innovation in regards to a motion sensitive ‘wii-mote’ which detect the controllers orientation, motion, and alignment relative to the screen. But if you’ve played any games on Apple’s iPod Touch or the iPhone, I think you’ll be impressed by the level of interaction that the iTunes App Store provides. Click here to see Apple’s iPod Ads featuring games.

Even the quality of free iPod / iPhone games such as Metal Gear Solid Touch and Tap Tap Revenge 2 have intense graphics and unexpected points of engagement ranging from the intellect all the way through fine motor skills. See the Tap Tap Revenge 2 video:

I don’t know if Apple had the iPod and iPhone in mind as a legitimate gaming platform (Apple's iPhone emerges as gaming platform, but it has definitely become more viable and it is only going to grow in the next few months with new software and hardware announcements coming at Apple’s WWDC in June.

Sony isn’t far behind with their six axis motion sensitive controllers that use games such as Flower, built by That Game Company. Flower is not your typical game by any means. Its hard to explain, but take a look at the video below:

The game is a little strange at first, at least with the years of experience I’ve gained, but I LOVE IT and its a good release from the serious, goal oriented games I’m used to. Instead of being a ‘character’, you become a flower petal that seems to ‘recruit’ new petals along a journey throughout a very detailed and vast universe.

Echochrome, another engaging example, is a game that makes a player think about perspective. Use the controls to change your perspective and make obstacles ‘hidden’ from view in order to advance to the next level. See the video below:

So what’s the conclusion? It is an exciting time for games and even if you haven’t thought about them or even tried them for lack of interest, it might be worth trying to play a game. It won’t be long before these interactive points find their way into everyday software and everyday lives. We might as well have fun learning it before it becomes a ‘requirement’ for living.

New iPhone App (NBA Game Time)

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0000

(See larger image on Flickr)

Disclaimer: This post is my own opinion and is no way affiliated, directed toward, or on behalf of Turner Sports, the NBA, or its affiliates.

There is a new iPhone app called NBA Game Time. It is a sports application which gives iPhone and iPod Touch owners the ability to receive live updated scores from NBA regular season games. You can get it FREE from the iTunes App Store. Click here to download (iTunes is required)

The navigational structure is a tri-view of NBA information categorized into ‘Scores’, ‘Schedule’, and ‘Standings’. On the landing screen, a user can select yesterday’s, today’s, or tomorrow’s scores which will take them into one of the three days viewable within the 'Scores' view. Inside of the ‘Scores’ view, a user can toggle between yesterday’s, today’s, or tomorrow’s scores manually. Users can 'touch' games that are in-progress or FINAL whereas as a subview containing team boxscores, player stats, and team stats appears. In addition, the 'Scores' view shows television broadcaster tiles that highlight nationally broadcast games (i.e. ABC, TNT, ESPN, or NBATV). From the ‘Schedule’ view, users can select a date from the 2008-2009 season to see historical, current, or future game data outside of the 3-day range. From the ‘Standings’ view, users can see the current East and West conference standings. The top 8 teams from each conference are highlighted to show eligible teams if the playoffs were to start today.

The application is extremely data intensive and pulls game data to populate all of the play and team statistics fields and the court images of the home team. I'm hoping that in the near future, the app will be able to use some rich media such as recap videos and / or live audio within the application to provide the 'immersive application' experience as defined by Apple.

I'm looking forward to the 2008-2009 Playoffs version of the application and maybe the app will get some sort of honorable recognition @ the 2009 Apple Design Awards.

Mobile Interaction Design

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:20:00 +0000

(Wireframe built using iPhoneMockup)

You may have seen through the infinite number of blogs and news feeds that there are 10 skills that developers will need in the next five years. Surprisingly, the last item in the list is Mobile Development. I’m a little confused by how low mobile design / development is ranked as we are at the beginning of a new era of interaction design based on gesture and touch. The very catalyst for the new methodologies and the widespread use of multi-gesturing and multi-touch is mobile devices. For example, with so many wireless options of interaction, some applications have actually made tactile contact a highlight of functionality within the app. See below:

Visual design of mobile applications is changing to incorporate new points of interaction such as depth perception and virtual environments. See below:

Stanford University, for example, is now offering their classes and programs through the iTunes U. Big deal, you say? Its not new that a school decides to spread knowledge through Apple. However, look at HOW they give information about heir school and classes to their students via an iPhone application. They use an iPhone application model that uses a 'nested application' view to give the user's the ability to feel like a single application is multifunctional. See below:

Lots of good ideas are coming out everyday and we, specifically the interaction designers and developers, can use these platforms to set good behavioral examples for the future and drive home basic interface rules and principles that have been ignored in other platforms. Just imagine the possibilities when the Palm Pre becomes available...

A Project Guide to UX Design Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:31:00 +0000

A Project Guide to UX Design is a book that defines the micro and macroscopic views of user experience design and its role in the project life cycle. Russ and Carolyn do a great job of reiterating what the core of user experience design is as well as identifying the different roles that utilize it. The book covers a lot of ground and takes a transcendental approach of showing the underlying purpose for each role in order to promote a synthetic comprehension of user experience design as opposed to shallow memorization.

The main target audience of the book are Information Architects, Interaction Designers, User Researchers, and other project stakeholders (Business Analysts, Content Strategists, Copywriters, Visual Designers, and Front-end Developers).

To make the contents more inviting, I've created an enclosing outline to provide abstract classifications for several groups of chapters. Each number represents the number of pages in each chapter:

+ Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Tao of UXD (8)
- Chapter 2: The Project Ecosystem (29)

+ Business Perspective
- Chapter 3: Proposals for Consultants and Freelancers (15)
- Chapter 4: Project Objectives and Approach (10)
- Chapter 5: Business Requirements (15)

+ Research
- Chapter 6: User Research (26)
- Chapter 7: Personas (13)
- Chapter 8: User Experience Design and SEO (17)

+ Information Architecture / Interaction Design
- Chapter 9: Transition from Defining to Designing (18)
- Chapter 10: Site Maps and Task Flows (17)
- Chapter 11: Wireframes and Annotations (17)
- Chapter 12: Prototyping (15)
- Chapter 13: Design testing with Users (25)
- Chapter 14: Transition: From Design to Development and Beyond (10)

The book also contains frequent references to books, online resources, and user experience groups and authors throughout as opposed to an Appendix or a 'For further reading' section nested in the back. This helps to drive home the thoughts as you read them, rather than 'when you are finished'.

As an aspiring user experience professional, I do believe that this book is worth owning, reading, and referencing as a compass to create effective user experience in any project setting.

Information Architecture Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:46:00 +0000

A lot of people think they know exactly Information Architecture is, but the truth is that a lot of people don’t know and they are not even aware that they don’t know (aka second level incompetence).

To make sure I wasn’t a member of the later group, I recently read Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web (2nd Edition) by Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella.

Wodkte and Govella do a good job in outlining their definition of the basic principles of IA:
- Design for Wayfinding
- Set expectations and provide feedback
- Design ergonomically
- Be consistent / consider standards
- Provide error support (Prevent, Protect, and Inform)
- Rely on Recognition rather than on recall
- Provide for people of varying skill levels
- Provide contextual help and documentation

While the illustrations that drive home the subject matter can be a little clipart-ish at times, the concepts are presented in a non-technical and non-jargon based way. Each topic is explained clearly using an outline / numbered bullet format to ensure that each section can be clearly understood independently and collectively. Items such as ‘Who are the users?’ may seem trivial at first, but imagine how many interpretations of ‘The users are...’ exists within an organization and the problems that arise when the user begins to morph throughout the product lifecycle to satisfy everyone's argument. Wodtke and Govella decompose several non-obvious items such as persona creation and navigational types (structural, associative, and utility) into chunks that are comprehensible (Hrair Limit). I was genuinely surprised to find a section for Social Architecture which exposed me to topics such as Kurt Lewin’s formula for understanding human behavior and the elements of social architecture: identity + elements, relationships + elements, and activity + elements.

The book can be read from cover to cover, if time permits. However, most of the world will probably use this book as a reference guide for completing IA related tasks as they arise. I would strongly recommend that all aspiring and current IAs give the book a once over to spawn new thoughts about the discipline or to renew the interest in keeping things usable and findable.

Expertise is overused. Try transdisciplinarity

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:55:00 +0000

Recently, I was referred to as an ‘expert’ in regards to my work on an upcoming iPhone application where I’m the lead architect (Don’t worry. I promise to not drown you in technobabble on this post). Upon hearing this, I was instantly uncomfortable and I felt compelled to correct the obvious error of judgment, if for nothing more than the sake of clarity rather than modesty. In any event, it made me think: “What do people really think an expert is? Do a few rudimentary accomplishments warrant ‘master’ or even ‘wizard’ level notoriety?” While I find several technologies and programming languages to be easy to use (Adobe Creative Suite, Actionscript, HTML, AJAX, sometimes Objective-C), I find myself realizing how little I know. The truth is, that I’m not an expert at all. I am able to pick up skills quickly and I’m able to use what I’ve learned over time effectively in different situations, but I would never say I’m an expert. To say that one is an expert implies that some threshold of knowledge has been reached or surpassed, and therein lies the problem. What happens next? Is there nothing left to learn? How many experts are self-judged and consequentially self-approved?

My personal solution: Stop trying to be an expert and become a transdisciplinarian. How do I do that? I chose to study the unions between and beyond scientific disciplines and humanities. As a designer and developer, I can see how proficiency in several related fields can improve the quality of my work and my dexterity overall. For example, I can infer what ‘good’ design is if I have design research which identifies visual cues, for example, that appear comprehensible by my target audience (See Gestalt Perception). Researchers such as Sam Ladner provide scientific and empirical evidence in an effort to influence the design of future products, but often this valuable quantitative and qualitative analysis is not used in the design process, if at all. (Recent post by Sam Ladner: Context, Time, and technology, Why do ethnography?) .

Another way of advocating transdisciplinarity is to consider the current U.S. economic situation. Millions of skilled workers, which include even more ‘experts’, are unemployed. In fact, comScore recently released a news brief stating online search behavior on search terms such as “unemployment”,”coupons”, and “bankruptcy” have increased year over year by 206%, 161%, and 156% respectively (comScore: Searches Using Term ‘Unemployment’ in December Triples versus Year Ago). Can anyone really afford to have a myopic view of what the job market considers to be valuable right now?

To help me change my thinking, I read a book entitled Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt which does an excellent job describing the the way our minds learn and think by introducing concepts such as the Dreyfus Model of skill acquisition. Hunt references second-order incompetence, which is loosely described as the condition of being unskilled and unaware of the deficiency, which may be a source of many self-proclaimed experts. I recommend the book, but the overall message is to try to become more holistic with our views of proficiency. A broader view of what your / our interests may help to make people more valuable today and in the future (circa end of the recession).

Designing for the Digital Age Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:32:00 +0000

Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services serves as an excellent guide and reference for new and experienced human centered design practitioners. Kim Goodwin (VP of Design @ Cooper.com) does a great job translating her goal-oriented design processes into clear and understandable terms. Human/user centered design books can easily be littered with heavy jargon or unintelligible references that make it difficult or impossible to understand or practice. Goodwin makes a conscious effort to explain and visualize many of the concepts introduced in each chapter and keeps the research lingo within reason. For example, in Chapter 12: Defining Requirements, Goodwin dispels what requirements aren't (i.e. features or specifications) and promptly outlines what is needed to generate effective requirements (i.e. data needs, functional needs, product / service qualities, constraints). In addition, Goodwin's writing style guarantees a cognitive learning experience with most readers by providing multiple exercises and scenarios that engage and evoke a desire for comprehension. The photography, diagrams, and charting are plentiful and supplement the subject matter effectively also.

I believe that this book is easily a pylon supporting the ever-swelling weight of UCD with its hoard of overlapping design disciplines. I recommend it to anyone interested in design or the design process...

Table of Contents:

Getting Started
     Chapter 1: Goal-Directed Product and Service Design
     Chapter 2: Assembling the Team
     Chapter 3: Project Planning
Research
     Chapter 4: Research Fundamentals
     Chapter 5: Understanding the Business
     Chapter 6: Planning User Research
Chapter 7: Understanding Potential Users and Customers
     Chapter 8: Example Interview
     Chapter 9: Other Sources of Information and Inspiration
Modeling
     Chapter 10: Making Sense of Your Data: Modeling
     Chapter 11: Personas
Requirements
     Chapter 12: Defining Requirements
     Chapter 13: Putting It All Together: The User and Domain Analysis
Framework
     Chapter 14: Framework Definition: Visualizing Solutions
     Chapter 15: Principles and Patterns for Framework Design
     Chapter 16: Designing the Form Factor and Interaction Framework
     Chapter 17: Principles and Patterns in Design Language
     Chapter 18: Developing the Design Language
     Chapter 19: Communicating the Framework and Design Language
Detailed Design
     Chapter 20: Detailed Design: Making Your Ideas Real
     Chapter 21: Detailed Design Principles and Patterns
     Chapter 22: Detailed Design Process and Practices
     Chapter 23: Evaluating Your Design
     Chapter 24: Communicating Detailed Design
Ensuring Success
     Chapter 25: Supporting Implementation and Launch
     Chapter 26: Improving Design Capabilities in Individuals and Organizations

See Your (Social) Influence and Grow It

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Back in the old days of the web, designers and developers such as myself used metadata to place keywords on websites in order for them to be searchable through Google, Ask.com, and others. The effectiveness of those keywords was measured in the number of organic searches that resulted in a unique site visit. The measure of a person / persona in a social networking atmosphere is not as easy to determine as there is no standard unit for ‘influence’ on the web. Facebook, Twitter, and flickr all provide different ways to communicate with other members, but how do you know if your messages are influential within your local group or in your global network?
I’d like to introduce a concept for measuring social ‘influence’ and increasing it over several networks. I call it the Total external social radius, or (T) chart. A person / persona is one voice on the Internet among a planet filled with tweets, chats, and IMs. When you tweet / post / comment / chat, who hears you? Can you be heard over the much influential people on the web and the remaining white noise? If you have something you want others to know, ideally, you want as many people to be aware of what is being communicated as technologically possible.
Think of the number of each social network as a circular layer around your persona. Imagine the radius of each layer as the total number of external personas that you have been able to capture. For example, Facebook could simply be the ‘number of friends’, Twitter would be your ‘followers’, and flickr could be images tagged as ‘favorite’. The sum of the aforementioned groups could be called the Total external social radius (T) and then you can visualize how much of an ‘influence’ one has. Naturally, not all of the layers would have the same radius, but you get the idea.
Another analogy could be with sound. Think of your radius in terms of sound. In Music, p stands for piano (soft), and ppp represents extremely soft. When a persona has a low radius, that means you are soft relative to the rest of the web. An increase in radius would mean that a persona is forte (loud) and in this case, fff represents extreme loudness. Maybe my tag could be mf (mezzo forte) which means moderately loud. Who knows...
So how do you grow your radius? Google Analytics provides tips on how to use their keyword and ‘Insight for Search’ tools to expand your keyword reach. You can do the same in each respective social network:
Facebook: Join networks and add ‘tags’ to your profile. The more you join, the better...
Twitter: Use #hashtags and get prominent tweeters to re-tweet (RT) your comments, links, and notes. Don't know what they are? Learn about #hashtags here...
flickr: Tag your images using the most prominently searched keywords
Perhaps an API will appear one day which would let you display your web influence. Imagine your power...Would you use it? Do you think others would adopt it?
Real: influence, keywords, metadata, sound
Imagined: talking softly in a loud room and being heard

How the ‘Recession’ helped me narrow my goals

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:19:00 +0000

When I hear people talk of the ‘pursuit of the American Dream’, one words comes to mind: Binge. Binge technology, binge entertainment, binge information, binge education. Anyone anywhere can do anything they want anytime. So, like most people, instead of trying to do anything, I tried to do everything all at once. Doing everything was my goal....Unfortunately, that is precisely where my self-inflicted confusion / delusion began.

I’ve always been fascinated with technology, mainly because of the creation and inspiration it provides. Once second a thought is in your head and given enough time, a person could put their thoughts onto a screen in the form of a picture, a program, or a blog. A person can study college level interaction design courses online and be as brilliant as a college graduate...for free. Thanks to open source, anyone can design / program websites and online apps without paying for a single byte of software. How cool was that!

It wasn’t until the recession landed right on top of me,us, everybody that I started to take note of the things I really enjoyed doing. I discovered that I have a strong desire to write and use more artistic outlets. Now that I have lots of free time, thanks to client cutbacks as well as a lower cash flow for dabbling in new technologies (i.e. Adobe CS4 is still too expensive..even after I save $200 by upgrading before Feb. 28th.), I am taking the time to narrow my career goals because I realized something very important: “Technology enables, but it also disables.”

Technology has enabled me to overextend myself with freelance projects and clouded my judgement by tricking me into thinking I want things that I really don’t want or need. Now that things have slowed a bit, I’ve managed to take control over what I want to do professionally and I am much happier for it...

Thank you recession for putting things into perspective and teaching me that milk and honey are not the most important pursuits. Thank you Leo Babuta for writing The Power of Less and making sure that I set limits and manage my expectations. Thanks Gretchen Rubin for making The Happiness Project. Thank you Shannon for putting up with my folly and my flaws while I figure out what it is that I am doing :)

Real: The power of less

Imagined: Delusions of grandeur

iPhone SDK: Application Development Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:41:00 +0000

When I first started learning to develop iPhone Apps, I went and bought a copy of Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, mainly because it was the only book available that seemed promising in January 2009....

Then, I found the iPhone SDK: Application Development book and it contains details of ALL of the user interactions that I've been trying to develop on my own.

The Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK book is great for beginners to get up to speed on the iPhone's functionality, but it lacks the basic components needed to complete the user experience that people have come to expect from most iPhone Apps. I was constantly soliciting help from other iPhone developers on Twitter for help with things like the Page Flick interaction because it wasn't written up in this book. It has lots of pictures of the iPhone sample programs running in the screen view, but this just means there is less room for explanations that could lead to something you or I can customize. This book, in my opinion, won't be enough to build a production ready program that will garner high sales in the iTunes App Store by itself...

Bottom Line: Jonathan Zdziarski's iPhone SDK book provides fully detailed instructions to intermediate XCode programmers on how to construct and embed almost all of the iPhone's notable UI features: Date/Time Pickers, Progress / Activity Indicators, Proximity Sensors, Cover Flow, and the Movie Player Controllers to name a few. The book even covers network connectivity (CFNetwork) which is quintessential for data driven applications. The prospect of using rich media components such as video and page controls means that others will be adding these features to many iPhone Apps in the future and soon demand for those items will be commonplace. There aren't a lot of pictures of sample apps running, but that's where the examples come in and you can customize the code however you want. My bet is on the book that has sections dedicated to user experiences that most iPhone users will pay money to download. Plus, most software companies won't hesitate to pay top dollar for people who can actually build Cover Flow into their software either...

Real: iPhone mastery, charging high hourly rates

Imagined: Reasons not to design / program for the iPhone

Do Good Design Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:48:00 +0000

I’ve had the chance to read quite a few books that provide guidance and examples of how to become a better professional designer. After reading David Berman’s most book Do Good ~~Design~~, I find myself to be enlightened and newly aware of the social influence and ethical accountability of design in every form (i.e. visual, interactive, information).

David states that technology has turned the world into designers via personalized interfaces, computers, and cell phones which segues into the his core thoughts:

Designers have more power than they realize

The largest threat to humanity’s future just may be the consumption of more than necessary

Human civilization...can not afford one more major global goof

The same design that fuels mass overconsumption also holds the power to repair the world

We live in an unprecedented technological age where we can each reach a larger legacy by propagating our best ideas than by propagating our chromosomes

Designers can be a model for other professions for identifying ones’ sphere of influence, and then embrace the responsibility that accompanies the power to help repair the world

Don’t just do good design, do good

While I won’t list all of the book’s chapters (Amazon is pretty good at providing TOC links), I’ll highlight a memorable quote from each major section:

The Creative Brief: Disarming Weapons of Mass Deception

Designers can use their professional power, persuasive skills, and wisdom to help distribute ideas the world really needs

The Design Solution: Convenient Truths
Imagine again a society’s potential where the largest signs, the cleverest ads, the most prominent messages promote healthy behaviors....We can choose it now.

The Do Good Pledge
Immediacy - The time to commit is now
Ethics - I will be true to my profession
Principles - I will be true to myself
Effort - I will spend at least 10 percent of my professional time helping repair the world

I don’t think I ever took notice of the magnitude of ads / visual lies that were around me before I read David’s book. I HIGHLY recommend this book and I hope that once people read it, we can start showing the truth altogether.

Real: Visual lies, The power to change things, Our accountability, Overconsumption

Imagined: The next form of global communication will be company branded logos

Stop Lying...

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:20:00 +0000

Now more than ever, more people go online and look for jobs.Many companies are so desperate to get more work and skills out of the people they do hire, the job of requirements are turning into flat out lies, which in turn make job listings 'unusable'. We all know that hiring managers sometimes get overzealous when they post an opening or contract role. Sometimes hiring companies honestly don't know what an interaction designer does outside of what other job listings have stated, at which point someone 'cuts and pastes' other companies skills into their own opening descriptions. In extreme cases, the job title is so misleading from the responsibilities of the job, it seems like an federal enforcement agency should step in. Example:

Title:Information Architect
Responsibilities: Wireframes, prototypes, Linux server administration and installation, Java and WebSphere
Really? I guess you could say that many companies want to fill a server admin role and an IA role....but with the same person!?

Point 1: We (working class) need an honest assessment of the skills needed today AND tomorrow so we can compare expectations. And by expectations, I mean salary / equipment needs / managerial support. Lying is not good design...

Bad Example: Not too long ago, a person I know was hired to do visual and web design work for a small company. The job requirements were very simple: Adobe CS3, HTML, CSS, and Ajax, which are all typical of a front-end presentation level role. Within two days, the job somehow morphed into a full-fledged certified .NET C# Developer position (SQL included). The company's attempt at sponsored training: Borders. Bad Design? Yes, if you consider the job said 'GUI Designer'.

Good Example: Alan Cooper is a prominent author and founder of his own consulting company. On his Careers section, not only does he 'define' each job category, job exercises are present to help prospects determine where they fall in the companies hierarchy, if at all. Here is a link to an example for the interaction design exercise. Good Design? Yes. Why? I now know that I would not be a good communication designer for Cooper, but I would be a great interaction designer.

Point 2: Hiring Managers and Recruiters must stop pushing expectations apart from one another, just in favor of pacifying all parties until after the contract is signed. For the sake of all disciplines, its not good design to be a Talent Pimp...

Real: Truth and honesty can make many things usable, including software and designs

Imagined: Lying, deception, talent pimping

Branford Marsalis on Students today

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:50:00 +0000

When I'm not doing web design or application development for the web, I'm a graduate student @ Iowa State University (online) and an practitioner of jazz via the alto saxophone. While I was in undergrad, I found most of the classes to be directionless and I was always frustrated with the minimalist efforts by fellow students as well as my own students (I was a Comp. Sci. TA for a couple of years). I would constantly ask myself, "Why are you here if you had no intention of at least trying to be the best @ international affairs or business management or accounting?".

It wasn't until I got into graduate school that I realized that real work is done by those who do not expect advancement in exchange for mediocrity (aka lazians).

I found a video clip of Branford Marsalis, a very prominent jazz artist and musician, speaking out about how he feels about the aforementioned lazians in general and I think he has an excellent point...take a minute to watch. (Warning: harsh language ahead)

Real: Rewards / Recognition for meaningful efforts

Imagined: Bonuses for the undeserving

1 billion visits? R or I Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:51:00 +0000

I’m not sure if the world knew about this but this past week, the global internet audience surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008, according to comScore. That’s quite a bit of traffic on the web, and I want to say personally that I’m proud of each and every person who made those 1 billion visits possible. Where would the salaries of so many web designers, web developers, information architects, and the gross revenue of Google be without all of you?

What I am not proud of is the fact that over the last five years, global internet interest in philanthropy has declined every year and is down almost 50% overall since 2004. (See: Google Global Insights for Search: Philanthropy)

Question: If the Internet has more people on the web than ever before and the most talented people building sites every day, how does the interest in philanthropy decline so much? We have open source technology, lots of engaging websites, and more rich internet applications than ever before...What is (not) happening?

One possible answer: Some are interested more in money and / or recognition and may think that not much of either will come from using their skills and time for humanitarian or philanthropic purposes.

Another possible answer: Perhaps some are willing, but unaware of how to get started or connected with meaningful groups and organizations.

Challenge: I would like to challenge each and every UI designer, user experience and information architect, web developer and web / graphic designer to use your technical or artistic skills to help at least one philanthropic project in the next 30 days. Why not take a break from list of clients that always seems to have a million 'tweaks' to your design in favor of a new client that is ecstatic to have someone actively contributing? Try visiting Designism Connects, which is a website that connects causes to creatives and vice versa.
If you have a success story, let me know via comment. We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
I have already made contact with a group and I intend to design / program to help their cause. I also have a very big philanthropic plan in the works to expand this effort.

Real: Your ability, your creativity, your knowledge, your awareness, your accountability

Imagined: Diffusion of Responsibility

UX vs XA

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:46:00 +0000

(Credits: casch52 In and Out for a while)

I recently read an article that proposes several valid points comparing the composition of user experience design to experience design. (Read: From UX to XA: what is this Experience Design dem speak of today?)

As a practitioner of UI / UX design and a student of human computer interaction, I am often shocked about the lack of understanding of the UX role within the design process. Often, the practice is to build a technical framework and then ‘throw’ UX into the flow after some concrete development has occurred, if at all (Read: 10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design). But I think that is where the problem begins.....(User) experience design is an abstract concept that is being mistaken as a concrete discipline. Yes, UX designers end up creating visualizations of concepts in the form of mockups, wireframes, mental models, or storyboards. But that does not mean that UX, which uses Photoshop or OmniGraffle or Powerpoint (yuck) consists of the aforementioned tools alone. These are the tools available to us today. When the universe advances and Adobe Photoshop CS 900 (Extended) and Microsoft Office 2090 becomes available as an internet download to our brain, then we may use completely different tools as user experience designers (yes...I said ‘we’, as in I expect to still be here in 2090). User experience design, information architecture, usability, etc. are persistent and will outlive any and all technologies that are used to promote them.

Real: User Experience is not a transitive discipline and consists of several overlapping disciplines

Imagined: Adobe CS 900 (Extended), Microsoft Office 2090

How to be a free thinker

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:09:00 +0000

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Scott Berkun, who is an accomplished author of several popular books such as Myths of Innovation and Making Things Happen, but he routinely posts essays that often alludes to metaphysical, epistemological, and philosophical discussions. He recently wrote an essay entitled How to be a free thinker, which identifies several limiting flaws within social norms and the practice of emulation in lieu of demonstration within several disciplines. Here is an excerpt:
"Even under the guise of what we comically call education, most of us, most of the time, are taught to copy. To memorize. To understand someone else’s theories....The beginning of wisdom starts with asking two questions. Why do we believe what we believe? And how we know what we know". Scott issues 3 very interesting challenges that may invoke free thinking.

Is free thinking real or imagined?

Birth of R or I

noreply@blogger.com (compound j) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:27:00 +0000

After going through what seems like purgatory to get this blog up and running, I finally have published the site. Welcome to Real or Imagined, a place where you and I can vent some thoughts and you can choose whether something can or cannot exist.

I look forward to posting many things here (i.e. concepts, ideas, thoughts, etc.), conduct book and content reviews for the sake of objective opinions, and several topics that are important in my life (i.e. Information architecture, HCI, information design, interaction design, user experience, philanthropy, etc.).

Let's get started...